August sales at department stores fell 0.1% from July and 0.8% from last year; electronics and appliance sales fell 0.7% from July and 3.5% year over year; and clothing and accessories sales fell 1% from July and rose 0.6% from last year. "The bottom line is that consumer spending is uneven but remains resilient and the key contributor to US economic growth".

Analysts said the weaker-than-expected August sales were weighed down in part by the initial disruptions from Hurricane Harvey on the Gulf Coast. Total sales for the three-month period between June and August rose 3.2% compared with past year. "Quarterly retail revenue growth has averaged just 3.2% over the past three years, down from 3.8% during the 2009-2013 period and off sharply from the robust 8.7% growth racked up from 2000-2008". Month over month, however, nonstore retail sales fell 1.1%. They nudged up at home furnishings stores and grocery stores.

Building materials and supplies stores decreased 0.5 percent from July but increased 8.2 percent unadjusted year-over-year.

Louis ex-officer acquitted in killing of black man
He leaves the company in January 2016. "I'm sad, I'm hurt, I'm mad", the Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church in St. Louis police tweeted that "agitators" were engaging officers at Tucker and Spruce, with officers being hit with water bottles.

6 dead FL nursing home that lost power during Irma
Florida is the U.S. state with the largest proportion of elderly residents, spread among almost 700 retirement homes. The feds alleged those patients came from assisted living facilities owned by Michel and other physicians.

Jose downgraded to tropical storm
Forecasters are also monitoring Invest 96-L, located about 1,200 miles east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles. Last year, Hurricane Otto formed on November 20 and made landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 2 storm.

Excluding autos, an often volatile category, ? sales were up 0.2% last month; economists had expected a 0.5% gain.

Still, thanks to a still-solid job market, economists generally remain upbeat about retail sales in coming months, with many saying they expect consumer spending to grow at a solid 2.5 percent rate in the July-September quarter. Please visit the POS software pages and POS hardware pages (see left side menu above) to find great POS products from various vendors.